TAMPA — When you get previous the loopy leisure worth of the Bruins’ 6-5 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning – the goalie struggle, the questionable officiating, the cool spectacle of 65,000 engrossed in a hockey sport – all of it boiled down to 2 recurring themes for the B’s season.
The primary is that they left one other level on the desk, one which could possibly be helpful come April. The second is that they’ve their behavior of taking a ridiculous quantity of penalties accountable for it.
All of it unraveled for them within the second interval as that they had what appeared like a snug 5-1 lead over the Atlantic Division-leading Lightning. First Charlie McAvoy took a roughing penalty at 9:07 of the second, the primary of seven straight energy performs the Lightning have been granted.
Most all of them have been penalties. The meat the B’s had was that the Bolts weren’t handled as harshly by the officers. The dearth of an identical roughing penalty when Jake Guentzel hit Mark Kastelic after Kastelic roughed Oliver Bjorkstrand in addition to a missed journey perpetrated on McAvoy whereas the B’s have been killing a 5-on-3 simply earlier than Sean Kuraly was known as for closing his hand on the puck have been simply a few head-scratchers.
However now the B’s must discover a technique to park it and end strongly Wednesday in Dawn, Fla., after they play the Florida Panthers within the closing sport earlier than the Olympic break.
Whereas Marco Sturm didn’t sugarcoat his workforce’s lack of self-discipline and composure, he did his finest to strike a optimistic word about his workforce that’s now 11-2-2 for the reason that begin of the brand new yr.
“That’s the advantage of these type of video games, particularly once you lose these sorts of video games. You need to be taught from it. Typically it’s a must to undergo these failures. And for me, right this moment was one. Once more, it simply reveals me that we’re not there but,” mentioned Sturm. “We’ve received to be taught from it and we’ve received to maneuver on. Once more, we have been enjoying with out our high two centermen (Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha) and the way in which our younger youngsters performed was very spectacular and total the way in which the workforce performed was spectacular. We did a number of good issues. Don’t get me unsuitable. We did a number of good issues. It was simply unlucky. However we’ll take that time and we’re very pleased with how we’re as a workforce proper now. We’ve received another sport earlier than the break and we’re going to do every part we will to get two factors.”
However the officiating was, shall we embrace, attention-grabbing. It began very early within the sport when Guentzel was known as for high-sticking McAvoy despite the fact that it was an apparent follow-through by Guentzel, which is allowed. As a substitute of huddling up and getting the decision appropriate, they despatched Guentzel to the field. To make it proper, they then rapidly manufactured a tripping name on Viktor Arvidsson to even issues up.
Then there was a weird state of affairs in additional time. After Pastrnak tapped JJ Moser on a backcheck – typically it’s known as, typically it isn’t – referee Jon McIsaac raised his arm within the air. However even after the Bruins gained management of the puck, he didn’t blow the play useless. Because the B’s transported the puck all the way in which up ice and there was no whistle, Jeremy Swayman understandably assumed that the decision was going towards Tampa and headed for the bench for an additional attacker. Pastrnak then beat Andrei Vasilevskiy for what he thought was the game-winning purpose.
As a substitute, he was despatched to the penalty field.
“It was a joke,” mentioned a flabbergasted Pastrnak.
The play left all of the Bruins perplexed. And fuming.
“I believe that made us extra mad than the (different) calls,” mentioned Morgan Geekie, who scored his thirty first and thirty second objectives within the loss. “The truth that Sway was out of the web and we carried all of it the way in which down the ice and scored with out anybody blowing the whistle. …He clearly noticed one thing that none of us did however he may need been watching two ice sheets. I don’t know.”
Whereas that was a wierd second, the actual fact of the matter was that the B’s had already self-sabotaged what ought to have been a signature victory. The B’s have now moved again into the league-lead for minor penalties with 238.
“We might complain all day and night time concerning the calls that have been made. However on the finish of the day, there wasn’t too lots of them that weren’t penalties,” mentioned Geekie. “It’s simply unlucky that we saved placing ourselves within the field, figuring out what they’ve on the opposite facet in the case of particular groups. We simply must look ourselves within the mirror. It’s been a difficulty all yr, so it’s not prefer it’s a one-off factor.”
However as bitterly disappointing because the end result was, even the B’s gamers needed to marvel at how the entire night time went, from the bells and whistles of the outside ambiance that Tampa and the NHL did proper to the Swayman-Vasilevskiy goalie struggle that had everybody giddy within the second.
“It was nice. I’ll keep in mind that ceaselessly, for certain,” mentioned Geekie. “It’s an amazing factor that the NHL does to permit us to do that. That on high of every part, it’s not the end result we wished but it surely’s one thing I’ll always remember and I’m certain it’s the identical for everybody in right here. You by no means know when your final one goes to be, so that you simply attempt to soak all of it in and take what you’ll be able to.”
